IMAGES BY BRIAN SAYLE AND WORDS BY DESH KAPUR
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Are The Masters Of Synth Pop
O.M.D (Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark) are Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, and they are one of the original pioneers of 80’s synth pop, alongside bands like Depeche Mode, Human League and Kraftwerk. Tonight they were playing as near as it gets to a hometown show, them being from the Wirral, and this show being at Liverpool Olympia. In fact, this is a second night of playing in Liverpool for the band, as the first night sold out so quickly. Hmmmm, so people still want to hear 80s synth pop?!
As I enter the venue it’s already full, most of the crowd looked to be about 50! Here to re-visit times gone by, then and their teenage years. This time the make-up only seemed to be on the ladies and the dress code seemed a little more conservative than it would have been back in the day, even though there was a young lady at the front ,dressed as Joan of Arc complete with plastic sword in tribute to the OMD song of the same name.
As the house music stopped and the stage was bathed in blue light, the main men Andy and Paul , walked on to the stage with rest of the band in tow, Stuart Kershaw on drums and Martin Cooper on keyboard and saxophone and then the metronomic drum beat of Architecture and Morality started to echo round the venue and that oh-so -familiar 80’s vocal styling of Andy McCluskey kicks in and that gets the crowd on their feet, singing along.
OMD are seasoned entertainers and have mastered the art of holding their audience in their collective hands; the interaction between Andy the crowd a lesson some young bands could learn from. They play and move round the stage like they are also reliving their teenage years, Andy McCluskey never seems to stop moving and is incredibly animated, even with guitar in hand and they looked like they were having the time of their lives. But I guess If you are still relevant and still selling out venues 40 years in to your musical career, you would be pretty chuffed. But this is a testament to how good OMD were, are and how brilliant their song writing has always been.
Songs like Joan of Arc, Maid of Orleans, Enola Gay and History of Modern get the biggest reception with the crown singing jumping and clapping along.
As the night draws to and end, OMD have been right on it from the first song, building the show cleverly and slowly to an exciting and frantic end.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are the masters of synth pop having perfected the art of minimal and experimental, then blending it beautifully with a pop ethos into 3-minute slices of perfection.
SET LIST
1/ ARCHITECTURE AND MORALITY
2/ SEALAND
3/ THE NEW STONE AGE
4/ GEORGIA
5/ SHE’S LEAVING
6/ SOUVENIR
7/ JOAN OF ARC
8/ MAID OF ORLEANS
9/ THE BEGINNING OF THE END
10/ ATOMIC RANCH
11/ MESSAGES
12/ TESLA GIRLS
13/ HISTORY OF MODERN (PART 1)
14/ FORVER LIVE AND DIE
15/ DON’T GO
16/ SO IN LOVE
17/ LOCOMOTION
18/ PANDORA’S BOX
19/ SAILING ON THE SEVEN SEAS
20/ ENOLA GAY
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My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago
